Discussion for article #226385
“This isn’t a war zone,” they say. “This is America,” they say.
Reminds me of the old twist riddles that blow your mind when the reveal is that something isn’t mutually exclusive.
The doctor was a woman!
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Could there be a police chiefs any stupider than the ones in Ferguson and in St. Louis County. (Arpaio excluded). These guys just want to get their guns off. They spend more time at the tactical range than in the neighborhoods the “serve”. And how the hell does a town of 20k residence afford so much friggin war regalia? Cowards that carry their courage on their hip, and their brains in a donut box.
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I’m just disgusted by the militarization of this small police force and the excessive and aggressive mistreatment of protesters and reporters.
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A lot of fat racist cops have had their guns in their holsters too long. They’re itching to try them out.
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Police brutality towards reporters is always reported like it was some accident that reporters got caught up in whatever was going on. How much clearer can it be that reporters are being targeted? Remember how it happened at Occupy protests and national convention protests, where media — and medics — were targeted by police?
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That last one - police dissemble the gear - ought to land them all in court and out of a job.
Freedom of the press, remember?It’s kind of in the constitution. When is the justice department going to step in?
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So, here are a few new things that struck me looking at these and reading the captions.
A demonstrator throws back a tear gas container after tactical officers worked to break up a group of bystanders . . .
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Umm, hello? Have we now hit the point where we don’t even notice the fact that a SWAT team using tear gas to "break up a group of bystandanders is majorly fucked up? Systematically, we’re seeing cops acting like standing and watching what’s going on, whether from private property or the public streets, is a thing a) they’re authorized to break up, b) that they ought to break up, and c) that they need a goddamned SWAT team and tear gas to break up. Has there been a declaration of martial law that I missed? A emergency decree suspending civil rights that has gone unreported? No? Then how is it that this is being reported as “oh, and here’s another thing that happened” unworthy even of WTF sidebar?
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Has anyone noticed that, in every photo or video you see, the “crowds” that are drawing this massive response are really small? In picture after picture, it’s like the cop to protester ratio is about 2:1. Is that because the cops are going around breaking up anything that even looks like a gathering, First Amendment be damned, is it just another mark of the extent of the ridiculousness of the overreaction, or are we somehow not getting any pictures of the really big crowds?
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I find it amazing that despite the fact that almost everyone in America now carries a high-res digital camera, most of them with video capability, we have yet to see a single picture of someone throwing one of these Molotov cocktails all the asshats are talking about. Remarkable, really. All those cameras, and no pictures of anyone actually carrying, wielding, or throwing a Molotov cocktail and no photos of gas burning somewhere after one was thrown, despite the fact that that would a really dramatic photo to have. Why, it almost makes one suspect that the cops have seen people throwing their various incendiary devices back at them and reported them as “Molotov cocktails” because they just know that These People are going to do that sooner or later, and then our ever credulous press just credulously reports it.
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Smoke bombs? What the fuck is up with that? “Lookit! Look at those bystanders over there! They could get up to no good in a hurry if we don’t break 'em up! Quick, let’s provide them with a smoke screen to conceal their movements because that’s what you do when you see potentially dangerous people gathering!”
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The police are just throwing fuel on the fire with their strong arm tactics. The testosterone is just flowing! This is all great fun for them. They get to dress up like army men, and use all their big toys.
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TYPical LIbrul OVerREAction to LEgitiMAte poLICE tacTICs TO COCKtaiL-THrowing THUGs. THIS is a DIrect REsult OF NobaMA oPENIng OUR borderS to ALIEns. NO MORE ALIENS!!!11!1!1!ONE!!!1!!1!!!
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